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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24196912">Crown Prince Clinton Barton; Legendary Disappointment, and an Absolute Goner for Bucky Barnes</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Tomb_With_A_View/pseuds/A_Tomb_With_A_View'>A_Tomb_With_A_View</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Arranged Marriage, Army husbands to actual husbands, BAMF Clint, Bucky is still a murder husband at heart, Clint Barton Gets a Hug, Clint Barton Needs a Hug, Fluff, M/M, around his face, from Bucky’s thighs, i think, that’s it</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:27:24</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,418</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24196912</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Tomb_With_A_View/pseuds/A_Tomb_With_A_View</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Clint and Bucky have been lovers for three years in the army during the wars against the South. Crown Prince Clinton Barton of Waverley has just been called home to marry Prince James Barnes of Brooklyn.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Clint Barton &amp; Natasha Romanov, Clint Barton &amp; Sam Wilson, James "Bucky" Barnes &amp; Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes &amp; Steve Rogers &amp; Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes &amp; Tony Stark, James "Bucky" Barnes/Clint Barton, clint barton &amp; Sam Wilson &amp; Natasha Romanov</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>150</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Crown Prince Clinton Barton; Legendary Disappointment, and an Absolute Goner for Bucky Barnes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Is this an insomnia fuelled mess? Yes. Do I have any backstory, context, or world building? Not in the slightest. Enjoy</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Clint had never imagined himself marrying for anything other than love. When his mother had told him stories growing up, it had always been about a boy and a girl who had fallen in love and gotten married.</p><p>Then he’d grown up a bit and found out boys and boys could get married, and girls and girls could get married, and he’d realised marrying a boy sounded more like something he’d want to do than marry a girl.</p><p>Then he’d grown up a bit more and found out Barney would be marrying a princess from three kingdoms over, not because they loved each other, but because the alliance of their kingdoms would be fortuitous to their people, and their parents had decided that was the way to go.</p><p>But he was the younger son. He wasn’t the heir, unless Barney should die before he and Princess Laura should have children, and he wasn’t exactly popular in Society. His father hated him, his mother was indifferent, and what good was a man who couldn’t hear at a ball?</p><p>It turns out, even though his father hated him, and his mother was indifferent, and he wasn’t any good at a ball, he was the best damn shot the military had ever seen, and as far as they were concerned, being deaf just meant one way in which they couldn’t fuck you up. Can’t break what’s not there, was what the recruitment guy had said by way of an interpreter, and one perk of being essentially shunned was that no one knew who he was, nor did they care.</p><p>Clint loved the army. He got out with a group of men who couldn’t give two fucks about the prince, half of whom knew sign language already, because of the number of guys they’d known that had had their hearing destroyed by a canon, or a gun by their head. Sometimes they’d hand him a gun and point and point until every person coming towards him was dead and he was lauded as a hero back on base and he got extra beer with his dinner. Sometimes they handed him a bow and arrow because they’d seen what he could do with it and it was the best thing they had for stealth. Those times, they’d find a place to hide him, and they’d describe the person they wanted dead. It was absolutely brilliant.</p><p>The were worst times, sure, when they stuck him in with everyone else and gave him the same kit as everyone else. It wasn’t that he was bad at it, it was that he wasn’t at his most effective with his heart pounding and his blood roaring as even nerve lit up. How was he supposed to protect the men he served with if he was too busy trying to figure out how to use his limbs when they were afire with energy? How could he help when he was stumbling blindly with no sound to guide him of incoming bullets?</p><p>Then he met Bucky.</p><p>Bucky was..Bucky was amazing. Clint had no idea what his first name actually was, but he assumed it was something embarrassing enough to decide to stick with Bucky and left it at that. The guy was part of the army for a neighbouring kingdom that had had similar troubles with the forces pressing from the South. He was a Sergeant, and a damn good one at that, if the way his men hung on his every word until they had a drink in hand, at which point they promptly ripped the shit out of him, and he spoke sign completely fluently. He’d later explain his best friend had growing up hard of hearing, and it had just made sense to learn it together.</p><p>Clint’s first encounter with Bucky had been a miscommunication about which sniper to put where. They’d ended up trying to made a nest at the same point, which had lead to a lengthy write up and a development in communications between the two forces. They’d gone back to base, where some general or something had declared that Bucky and his men would be there for a while, and that they’d be joining forces.</p><p>To clarify, Clint wasn’t trying to sleep his way up an ally’s military command to find out information. He was a prince for Christ’s sake if he wanted information, he’d write a letter to Natasha, the best spymaster his kingdom had ever seen. He was, however, sleeping with the best sniper on the other side of the Kingdom walls.</p><p>It started out innocent. They’d been sent on a stakeout together, and they’d been told to kill time until daybreak, before which, they weren’t needed. It’d been miserably cold and frosty to boot, and they’d ended up leaning against each other and sipping whiskey as they shared war stories.</p><p>From there it was stolen kisses as they passed each other, and cuddling if they got sent out hours before they had to do anything.</p><p>Then it stopped being so innocent. It started with kissing against a wall, and Clint actually cataloguing the half a foot he had over Bucky. Then it was grabbing his ass, until suddenly Bucky had his legs around Clint’s waist and one hand in his hair, and well.. Clint wasn’t entirely to blame for what happened after that.</p><p>Then Barney abdicated as heir, six years after Clint had joined the army, because Laura had been passed up for the throne, and they’d decided to travel the world, and Harold and Edith remembered they actually had a second son. They allowed him to finish up properly, return home with his brothers in arms, but once home, that was it. Gone was Hawkeye, the best shot of the Waverley Military, and the tamer of the infamous Sergeant Barnes, and now all that remained was Crown Prince Clint Barton, legendary disappointment, and a complete goner for Bucky Barnes.</p><p>——</p><p>Clint wasn’t..surprised, exactly, when he was informed of his upcoming wedding. He’d thought he’d have more time, sure, a chance to meet someone, and he hadn’t really been thinking about it.</p><p>At least, he supposed, it was Prince James Barnes, of the neighbouring kingdom, Bucky’s kingdom, and not Princess Rebecca Barnes. That was something. It would be hard though. To visit Bucky’s kingdom as a prince, to maybe even see him, or the Howling Commandos, and know that they’d likely only see the lies he’d told them and what little use he would be as a deaf King.</p><p>Sure, his brothers in arms hadn’t, in fact when he’d managed to convince Harold to let him make any who wanted it part of his Guard, they’d all come, but he couldn’t make himself believe that they didn’t feel they had to. That he’d served with them for so long that they were so proficient in sign that it didn’t really matter about the deaf thing, and they felt indebted maybe, for saving their lives. Maybe they just liked the money that came with guarding the Crown Prince.</p><p>——</p><p>The wedding approached quickly, and Clint wanted to be furious. Natasha had raged at him about how unfair it was that they’d picked him up and thrown his whole life out of the window, Sam had told him he was likely internalising things and that really, he should feel free to say how he really feels. Hell, even Coulson had quietly hugged him and told him that if he needed a shoulder to cry on, it a punching bag, he’d joked, that he was there. But he just..felt nothing. He’d known, that this was always a possibility. That Barney felt free on the back of a horse on the open road in the same way that Clint felt free five stories up, with only his balance and the grip on his shoes to keep him from falling. He was going to marry James Barnes - god could fate have picked anyone worse than a man from his love’s kingdom, bearing the same surname? He was going to marry James Barnes, and he was going to forget about Bucky Barnes. They hadn’t shared addresses to write to, and Clint hadn’t been able to explain why he wasn’t coming back.</p><p>Nat moved over to sit in front of him from across the room. <em>“You’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?”</em> She signed.</p><p>“Thinking about who?” It was never wise to lie to Natasha, but he always tried anyway.</p><p>
  <em>“You’re thinking about the guy. From the army. Whoever it was that made you had you brimming with heart eyes, and smiling constantly whenever you were on leave.”</em>
</p><p>“It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m to be married in two days. As far as my life is concerned, Bucky Barnes doesn’t exist.”</p><p>She stiffened. <em>“The man you fell in love with was Bucky Barnes? Are you kidding? Clint..”</em></p><p>He watched her carefully. “What is it? What do you know?” He knew his voice was probably getting too loud, it always did when she got secretive.</p><p><em>“I think it should be a surprise.”</em> She signed slowly.<em> “It’s nothing bad, I swear, in fact I think you’ll like it, but if you’re too excited for your wedding, your father would call the whole thing off out of spite.”</em></p><p>That much was true, Clint knew for sure. It seemed like she was implying that Bucky might be there. He didn’t entertain the thought that Bucky might be James, it would just be too crushing if it wasn’t true. But maybe he’d get to see him..apologise for lying..get an address to write to..</p><p>Natasha rolled her eyes at him. “I have to go. Be ready to travel to Brooklyn come dawn.” She swept out, as always looking much more regal than Clint ever could.</p><p>——</p><p>The day of the wedding, Clint was just so looking forward to catching even a glimpse of Bucky, that he couldn’t even find it in himself to be nervous or angry about getting married to someone he potentially, no, almost definitely, didn’t know.</p><p>He’d been expecting some tacky white suit that was probably all the rage in his mother’s social circles, so when Nat and Sam walked into the room he’d been given in the Barnes castle, holding his freshly pressed dress uniform, medals pinned into place, he was inexplicably choked up. <em>“My dads letting me where this?</em>” He was too emotional or tired or both to even try modulate his voice, so when straight to signing.</p><p>Natasha rolled her eyes and out the uniform down on the bed to reply.<em> “Your husband to be is a soldier. It would be an insult to the both of you to put you in a wedding suit.”</em></p><p>Every fucking thing said about his husband was slowly building the fever dream that it was Bucky, and Clint wanted so badly to believe it. But he knew that if he gave in, if he let himself believe that Bucky had been living the same lie he had, and it turned out to be someone else standing at the altar, then it would break Clint. Irreparably.</p><p>——</p><p>Watching Natasha walk up the aisle, knowing it was his turn in less than a minute was quite possibly the most terrifying situation he’d ever been in, including running through live fire when he couldn’t hear where it came from and only had the men around him to make sure he didn’t die.</p><p>Clint focused on the floor as he walked out, not daring to look up until the last possible second. As soon as he caught sight of his husband to be, he was glad he hadn’t looked up sooner, because he’d probably have started grinning like a loon, and ran up to spin Bucky up into his arms.</p><p>Because it was Bucky. Stood back straight with a crown just like Clint’s, medals pinned to his chest, looking absolutely enchanted.</p><p>Fucking hell it was Bucky. Strong, gorgeous Bucky who’d thrown knives at his head for particularly self deprecating jokes, and who could’ve gotten every single one of his men to give their lives for him, but would’ve sacrificed his own before he ever would, and who was so in charge of everything until Clint got his hands on him, and then he was the easiest, sweetest guy in the world.</p><p>It still hadn’t fully hit, until Bucky took his hand and leant up on tip toes to kiss his cheek. <em>“Hey handsome.”</em> He signed subtly as the priest guy started the service.</p><p>Clint grinned at him. <em>“Hey gorgeous</em>.” He signed back to watch him blush and squirm slightly.</p><p>The good thing about being deaf was that no one could tell that the reason he wasn’t paying attention was the way Bucky was leant into him slightly, and the familiar weight against his side was just a constant reminder that he was marrying Bucky fucking Barnes.</p><p>Clint had no idea if Bucky was kissing him because the priest said it was time to kiss or because Bucky had decided fuck it and that he wanted to. He didn’t care either, and did his damn best to make Bucky’s knees give a little, but this whole situation was making him think he should’ve tried a little harder to convince his dad to look into the hearing spells that were being mentioned in certain circles.</p><p>Bucky led him back down the aisle and immediately started signing to him. <em>“So..Prince Clinton Barton, huh?”</em></p><p>Clint rolled his eyes.<em> “Says James Barnes. Where the fuck did Bucky come from?”</em></p><p><em>“My middle name is Buchanan.</em>” Bucky blushed. <em>“Childhood nickname. Let’s me be..normal I guess.”</em></p><p>“<em>That’s fair</em>.” He let a moment pass before glancing slyly at Bucky. <em>“So how long before we’re allowed to go fuck?”</em></p><p>As expected, a gorgeous pink crawled up Bucky’s cheeks. <em>“There’s a whole banquet, darling.”</em> He replied, looking around furtively. “<em>But it’s customary to leave a little earlier so everyone can fully mock us.”</em></p><p>
  <em>“Baby, the only people who I’m aware of that know sign are the soldiers we fucked a single wall away from for three years. What are you so worried about?”</em>
</p><p>Bucky looked over Clint’s shoulder as soon as he stopped signing. “<em>That</em>..”</p><p>Clint turned round as a guy almost as tall as him reached them. The guy was built like Bucky only a few inches taller, and trim in a way that Bucky wasn’t - Bucky was solid muscle, and thick everywhere, but this guy tapered off at the waist in a weird triangle kinda way. The guy was grinning evilly at Bucky. <em>“Buck, I cannot believe you’re planning to ditch your wedding banquet to have sex with your new husband.</em>” He signed, with the kind of ease that suggested he’d been at this for years.</p><p>Oh fuck.</p><p>The childhood hard of hearing friend. That’s what Bucky had been worrying about.</p><p>Bucky was bright red. “<em>Steven Rogers, I will tell Lord Stark that you plan to propose to his son if you don’t leave me alone.”</em></p><p>Steve looked at Bucky, then at Clint, then back to Bucky. “<em>You wouldn’t..right</em>?”</p><p>Clint was looking at Bucky. <em>“You know Lord Stark? The mage guy? With the genius son?”</em></p><p>Bucky nodded slowly. “<em>Yeah?”</em></p><p>
  <em>“Do you..do you reckon he could take a look at my hearing?”</em>
</p><p>His face softened. <em>“Of course, darling.”</em></p><p>——</p><p>They did, in fact, leave the banquet early. Some might say too early. Harold’s face said if you’d’a pulled this shit at home I’d beat you black and blue, but Steve and the young Stark were grinning encouragingly at them, and Nat and Sam were wolf whistling, whilst their men cheered loudly, so they did it anyway.</p><p>They made it to Bucky’s chambers before Clint picked him up. “We did it, baby.” He murmured into Bucky’s neck. “Happy ever after.”</p><p>——</p><p>Hearing, it turned out, was much more fun than he remembered it. Stark had this cool little spell that could be switched on and off, that restored his hearing only fully.</p><p>Bucky had a gorgeous voice. It was deep and smooth, and he spoke so many languages that sometimes Clint just liked to lay there and listen to him translate a phrase into all of them. He sounded incredible whether everything he said was slurred and a bit gravelly thirty seconds after he’d woken up, or when his every word was clipped and cold as he dealt with those that he didn’t like, but he sounded most incredible when it was just him and Clint. Sometimes, Clint would have to stop and categorise a new sound, which Bucky usually found adorable except when he was three orgasms in and sobbing and Clint just stopped for thirty seconds. But then Clint had made it up to him by letting him wrap his legs around Clint’s head and going to town, so he wasn’t exactly too annoyed about it.</p><p>Clint had decided he wanted a honeymoon, even if it was slightly belated, and because he knew his father would never go for it, he announced publicly that he and Bucky would be travelling east, so could they hurry or postpone any important issues.</p><p>It was either the best or worst decision he’d ever made. It was absolutely stunning there, and Clint absolutely loved every second of being there, but his father’s face when they returned with a white hell cat and a one eyed dog still made the child in him want to curl up in the wardrobe and cry silently. Bucky had merely jutted his chin out as though daring Harold to react, until he walked away, muttering about how he needed a drink.</p><p>——</p><p>Steve was an absolute well of embarrassing stories about Bucky, which delighted Clint to no end. Bucky, if you believed Steve, had grown up with the face of an angel, a heart of gold, and a wild, reckless spirit, while Tony was a ball of ingenuity and spite, and the two of them combined had led the three of them into all sorts of trouble.</p><p>According to Bucky, Steve had decided the world needed a fist to the face on a regular basis and thought he was the guy for the job, had done even when he was eleven and four foot five and seventy pounds soaking wet. Tony, Stark, was a short stack with more intelligence than was good for him, and a point to prove, and between the two of them, the three of them had ended up the most hated children in Brooklyn.</p><p>Tony’s version was Clint’s favourite. Tony said that he was brains, Bucky was beauty, and Steve was pure, unadulterated rage, and they both loved him so much that they used their brains and beauty to wreak havoc on the poor kingdom.</p><p>In return, Clint regaled then with stories of Natasha, a small girl from the Far East with a penchant for stealing anything from information to your prized jewels in the family vault, and Clint had bet her she couldn’t steal his father’s favourite bottle of whiskey, pour him a shot, and then return the bottle, and when she had, he’d declared them best friends for life. Sam, he told them, had come later. Sam, who had taken one look at the pair, a red headed thief who could barely speak the common tongue, and the disfavoured prince, bandages still wrapped around his head from the beating that had done his hearing in, and decided that they needed a translator for the world, and he’d just never left.</p><p>One night, soon after that, Bucky had rolled over in bed, checked to make sure Clint had the spell turned on, then nestled close. “If I had your father killed, would you be mad about it?” He asked softly.</p><p>Clint considered, properly, not just giving the knee jerk yes. After a moment, he replied. “I think if you can make it look like an accident. And not with my mother there. Then I would be okay with it.” He admitted quietly.</p><p>Bucky nodded and pulled him closer. “Consider it done.”</p><p>——</p><p>Ruling a kingdom was hard. Really hard. Especially considering Clint had hardly received the appropriate training. But all things said and done, he had the smartest, most beautiful husband in the entire world, and a court consisting of their closest friends. So he’d won really. Everything his father had said about him had turned out to be absolute bollocks, he was loved and wanted and so incontrovertibly happy.</p><p>And they all lived happily ever after.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Kudos and comments are always appreciated, constructive criticism is always welcome but please remember this is a result of me being tired and impulsive, no brain cells were used in the making of this fic :)</p></blockquote></div></div>
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